PERC 2009 Abstract Detail Page

Preparation for future learning is a term describing a new approach to transfer. In addition to focusing on the learning environments that help students better apply developed knowledge in new situations researchers are searching for the educational interventions that better prepare the students to learn new information on their own. First PFL studies were conducted by J. Branford and D. Schwartz in psychology and statistics. They found that students who engaged in innovation before being exposed to new material, learned better. We attempted to replicate their experiments in the field of physics, specifically in the area of conductivity. Using two experimental conditions and one control in terms of doing lab work prior to reading we compared student learning of thermal and electrical conductivity from the written text afterwards. We present the results of groups' performance on 7 conceptual questions.